Truth and true love stories

The real faimly story

Katrin topped off the green bean casserole with fried onions and popped it in the small oven. She was happy to see her daughter, but wished the girl would come home more often than the holidays. Penny had driven up from Ventura with her new friend to share Thanksgiving with the family. Meeting him was a shock. He wasn't human.

A loud thump shook the house and rattled the plates. Katrin braced herself, but it was over too quickly for an earthquake. She heard Penny and Bobby's voices; he sounded like he was in pain. Already it's started. "Dammit, Penny!" she shouted. "Are you kickin' your brother's hinter?"

"Mama, he was tryin' to kill Paris!" Penny shouted back.

At five-foot two and 95 pounds, that girl was a firecracker. When her brother did something she thought stupid, she took it out on him physically—and he was almost double her weight. Those kids are gonna give me a heart attack. "Dinner's in less than an hour. If I have to take someone to the clinic you'll both be in trouble!"

"Yes, Mama!"

Bobby would take over the farm someday, Akamatsu Ranch. He was protective of the family and of the farm and she could guess what the problem was—Penny's friend Paris wasn't human, but a male humanoid fox. Bobby probably thought he was protecting his little sister.

Katrin had seen a special on the Science Channel about these creatures. Several decades earlier one of the Gen Eng companies that had been doing government work went bankrupt. Among the assets the federal government seized were two-dozen genetically modified foxes. NASA/JSA latched onto them and hired another company to finish the work. It didn't surprise her that her daughter brought home a humanoid fox so much as it surprised her that Penny found one in Ventura.